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Pashto, or Pukhto, is one of the official languages of Afghanistan. Around 60 million people in Afghanistan, adjacent areas in Pakistan and worldwide speak Pashto as their mother tongue. It belongs to Indo-Iranian family of languages. Learn some useful phrases that may help you if you watch any TV show related to Afghanistan or meet any Pashtun.

Steps

1

Know how to greet others. Say "Assalam-o-alaikum (peace be on you)". When Pashtun meet, they greet with the Islamic greetings.

2

Say "with peace, you came" or "you are welcome". This could be used as a response to "thank you", or a greeting.

Staray ma-shay (may you not be tired) is also used for "Welcome".

3

Ask how others are doing.

To ask "what's up?", say "Sanga chal day? (n as in 'strange' and day as in 'the', soft D)".

To reply "everything is fine", say "khairyat day"

To reply to others with "I am fine", say "Za Kha Yem".

To say "How is everything at home?", say "koor ta sa ahwal day".

4

Show gratitude (or say "thank you"). The Pashto version of this is Dera Manana. Basically, you would be saying "thank you very much" (Dera=Very much, Manana=thank you).

You can say "Za pe poe na shum," meaning "I didn't understand." Also, "Poe na shum," meaning "didn't understand." "Pa sta khabara poe na shum" means "I didn't understand what you have said." The most common that Pashtuns use is "Sa?", which means "What?" The more basic Pashto you use, the better you sound to Pashtuns.

Te: You - It's a soft 't' sound; as if it's inching towards the 'th' sound, but not quite. Instead of tapping the tip of your tongue against the bottom of your teeth, move it back just a little - but not too far - to create that soft sound
Zma: My
Roar: Brother
Ye: Are - Almost pronounced as the word 'yay'; it's a sharp 'e' sound
This may seem like broken Pashto, but remember; the structure and word arrangements vary in different languages.

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wikiHow is a wiki similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are written collaboratively. To create this article, 16 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 86,725 times.